Three Die, Five Injured In Three-Car Collision

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 14

Three Die, Five Injured In Three-Car Collision

(New Zealand Press AssociationJ PALMERSTON NORTH, May 13. A Maori man and a young boy were killed, another man died in hospital later, and five other, persons are patients in the hospital, to which they were admitted in an unconscious condition, as the result of a smash involving three cars at the intersection of the Himatangi-Sanson main highway and Rongotea road this afternoon. Those.killed were NUKU WILLIAMS, aged 53, of Taihape. CHARLES LARKIN, aged 52, of Whangaehu, near Wanganui, and ■ A seven-year-old boy who was killed had not been identified late tonight. Those in hospital are: Mrs I. M. Ratana, M.P., for Western Maori, chest injuries; Mrs Ida Muriel Hunt, of 3 Rees street, Wanganui, broken leg and chest injuries; Miss Margaret Hunt, her daughter, chest injuries; Henry Max Jolson, company manager, of Wakefield street, Auckland, head injuries and Patrick T. Curran, a member of the Auckland City Council, fractured ribs and head injuries. Only one person of the nine travelling in the three cars was not admitted to hospital. He is William lan Gunn, solicitor, of Shortland street, Auckland.

Mr Larkin died shortly after admission to Palmerston North Hospital, and the three women were at first placed on the critically ill list. Late tonight, however, the condition of all the injured persons was reported to be satisfactory. Two ambulances took the injured to hospital. Police from Sanson, Rongotea Palmerston

North and a traffic officer directed the traffic *at the intersection until three cars, all sadly damaged, were taken away. Mr M. Orr, a taxi-driver, who was following about a mile behind one of the cars, was first on the scene of the accident. He immediately radioed his office in Palmerston North and the office notified the police and the hospital. The chief traffic officer in Palmerston North (Mr C. J. Robinson) said tonight that the accident was the worst he had known in the district. He said it was believed one car was travelling from the north and another from the south along the main highway, and the third was crossing the intersection from the Rongotea road.